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Narrative Design
Introduction Carnothek is the story of the player's character doing horrible things to survive and then escaping it in a damaged escape pod. The player sees none of this, instead it is told through dialogue with a computer that is recording a log of events. The player learns the story through an unreliable retelling and develops a biased understanding of events. The story is told in this slow, unraveling fashion to encourage the player to sympathise with their character. The goal will be for the player to avoid honest dialogue and to willfully choose bias, justifying the actions their character took to survive They are encouraged then to replay the game and explore options they avoided previously to gain a greater understanding of events. Development Concerns Carnothek's structure allows for a great deal of flexibility in development. Non-narrative aspects are limited and largely separated to a degree from dialogue, it is thus relatively easy to iterate on the game's dialogue and not require large revisions to other areas to match. The difficulty of tailoring such a story to our intentions is mitigated, if still a challenge. Narrative Design Carnothek's story is structed in five acts retelling the events prior to the game's start. To begin here is the story as it literally occurred, for future referencing: Literal Narrative The following section details the story as it actually occurred up to the events of the game, some events are not set to give the player some authority on what is true: # Carnothek takes on sealed cargo and doesn't know what's inside. The crew is divided on this but it pays well and the ship needs funds for repairs. # During the journey major systems begin to fail and they start draining oxygen from reserve systems including escape pods. They debate accessing the cargo for supplies, breaking the contract. # Either by decision or by a degree of force they open sealed cargo or try experimental oxygen production. Some disaster occurs because of this and causes terminal damage and they debate how to escape/get help. # By some means the player's character is driven to use an escape pod and a confrontation occurs. Tensions spill over and the player's character likely fails to reason with the captain and becomes somehow the only one to escape in the pod, that only has enough oxygen for one. The game starts here with the player unable to call for help. The computer, under contract, insists they first log the details of the accident and uses a simulation of the captain of the communicate with the player, ostensibly and ironically for the character's mental stability. Five-Act Narrative * 0: The player is introduced to the game; they fall to the floor with the sound of Pod-21 launching, breathing heavily. The player is left in darkness, suspense, and mystery. On the computer they go through an inconsequential section, learning character background while exploring how the dialogue works. * 1: During this section the events of Part 1 are recounted and the player is able to begin to explore bias in retelling, with it made relatively obvious. They could feel sympathetic to the situation or perhaps be vindictive about it. By this point spiritual aspects would have started to seep in, though mundane stuff takes precedence to reinforce the survival aspect of the player's situation. * 2: Recounting Part 2 allows the player to build on earlier feelings and define their role on the ship which allows them to see different perspectives in the next part. * 3: Major point of diversion where the player becomes more limited by more indepth in dialogue. The spiritual, astral phenomena becomes quite strong and contrasts with the more mechanical mundanes; repairing systems to parallel the poor situation on the Carnothek. This is the longest chapter, broken up by the uptick in distractions. * 4: The (hopefully, probably not) most emotional part where the player retells how they came to escape. Whether the captain was unreasonable or (rather rarely) understanding. Most scenarios should be brutal and miserable, and reinforce the player's isolation. Whether they tried to justify it or broke with their character along the way, the endings are now open to them. * 5: The previous cacophony of music and sound ebbs away to a tense thrum, an otherwise void filled with silence. There are several endings that will be open to the player, alternate versions depending on their dominant choices with inappropriate choices removed. Perhaps they transmit an honest, guilty log or attempt to cover-up their actions, and are permitted to activate the distress beacon. Perhaps they just sit in silence and let themselves drift away. Thematic Exploration Carnothek attempts to explore the thought experiment, the Plank of Carneades. To attempt to see if a player is capable of justifying terrible actions to survive in lieu of someone else. The game aims to direct the player to explore this concept, and to repeat the experience to view it from other perspectives. I think it likely difficult to make the player genuinely affected but at the very least it should offer them an opportunity and space to contemplate the idea indepth. It aims to focus this contemplative mode through its slower-paced gameplay and through parallels to spiritual journeys in which one must mature. That being said I still aim to offer an interesting story in regards to objective events. What can be considered spiritual or thoughtful is also isolating, suspenseful, and disorientating. Role of Thoughtful Moments There are two breaks from regular gameplay in dialogue; astral phenomena and mundane missions. They are as follows: * Astral Phenomena; surrealist visuals seen outside Pod-21 that reflect through their visuals the emotional intentions of the dialogue. It is intended to provoke some sense of spirituality. * Mundane Mission; contrasting are simple, mundane tasks the player is directed to such as eating, repairing something, sleeping. They give a pause to gameplay where little is added to story. It is primarily a space for quiet reflection. The purpose of these sections is broadly to break up and pace out gameplay. Considering gameplay is one screen with largely only dialogue it is important to avoid fatigue and to allow the player time to digest the story rather than risking them drowning in it and losing understanding. Thus these sections come regularly, and between the two types offer some internal variety. Use of Sounds Sound in Carnothek is a blend of environmental sounds and minimalistic music. The player is left in silence so the sound of the pod is prominent. It is much easier for them to think idly here and when new sound is introduced it is more effective at gaining the player's attention. A consistent element will be the humming and ticking of the pod. The hum may express warmth with thrumming or anxiety with a shrillness, the diagetic music reflecting player emotion. The ticking is to provide a constant pressure of time, bringing attention to the length of isolating or disturbing them like a heartbeat in the ear. Dialogue is only spoken aloud by the computer, the player does not themselves talk. This is so the player is better able to project their own thoughts onto the character.